Stacking

Hey! Did you hear the news about Stacking and Costume Quest? No? Oh, right, that’s because I’m still in the process of reporting it. Well, the short version is, Double Fine – after what Tim Schafer describes as “a daring and top-secret midnight raid” on Nordic Games HQ – has reclaimed full rights to both Stacking and Costume Quest. Distribution, production, whatever else goes into making a game – all that good stuff. So what happens now? I got in touch with Double Fine to (double) find out.

Stacking! It's the heroic tale of Charlie Blackmore, the world's smallest Russian stacking doll. We can learn a lot from Charlie's journey, and his triumph. For example, child labor is generally considered to be bad. And stacking dolls can be surprisingly flatulent.

Also, things that are small are often very good. Like prices! Stacking has now received a permanent $5 price cut on Steam to $9.99. Huzzah!

“Double Fine?” someone somewhere has probably said at some point maybe. “Who do they think they are, claiming to be twice as fine as the rest of us? I’m no fool. I don’t believe it for a second.” But, Mr Somewhere, what if you’re wrong>? Then you’ll just look silly, your only solace coming in the fact that going off the grid in shame would be simple, given that you have the least Google-able name of all time. Clearly, the only solution to your conundrum is a test. You need to play most of Double Fine’s back catalog, but your gleaming shield of skepticism must be kept aloft. Buying these games full price would only create suspicion that you might harbor legitimate interest. We can’t have that. The solution? A new Humble Double Fine Bundle. It’s offering all of the laugh factory’s PC games except Iron Brigade on a pay-what-you-want basis, and a pre-purchase of Broken Age if you’re willing to part with $35. Exceedingly strange, vaguely arousing video after the break.

This patch lets you toggle the film projector effects in cutscenes and the in-game vignetting. These still default to on, but some players have asked for a way to turn them off. You can find the new options in the graphics settings page.

This patch adds an option to adjust the field-of-view (FOV). Theres now a slider in the camera settings (under Help & Options… Settings… Camera) that adjusts the FOV anywhere from 40 degrees to 120 degrees.

The patch also increases the size of a memory buffer that was causing some out-of-memory crashes for a few players.

- Fixes the missing geometry issue in the Secret Hideout and Top Hat Lounge rooms- Increases audio memory to fix sound drop outs- Fixes several issues with the controller remapping screen- Camera settings page now works with both the mouse and gamepad- Correctly debounces the escape key when pulling up the options menu

Here’s what puzzles me. We’ve all been so terribly excited about Double Fine making a new point and click adventure game and potentially making Psychonauts 2 – as though the idea of getting games like that had hitherto been openly insane. And yet, on console, they’d already released Stacking, which is positively dripping in adventurey leftfield puzzles and Psychonautsy surreal-slapstick humour. So, before we get entirely wrapped up in crying for more, let’s celebrate lovely Stacking, which arrived suddenly on Steam just a few days ago. (more…)

Hello, you. I thought you’d like to know that Stacking is out on Steam. Stacking is Double Fine’s puzzley adventure based on nesting dolls. It’s proper lovely. There’s even “money off” until the 13th. But should you buy it? There’s no demo! Well I played a couple of hours of it on the console box, and it was okay – but don’t take my back-handed recommendation as your guide, instead, look into your heart>, and if there is only a clown’s face in there, staring silently back at you, wait for Alec’s Wot I Think, which should turn up later this week.

Explore a vintage world inhabited by living Russian stacking dolls as you jump into more than 100 unique dolls and use their special abilities to solve a wide variety of puzzles & challenges. Play as Charlie Blackmore, the worlds tiniest Russian stacking doll, and embark on an adventure to rescue Charlies family from the nefarious industrialist known only as the Baron. This imaginative 3rd person puzzle adventure game will take you on a journey from a bustling Royal Train Station to a high-flying Zeppelin as you collect unique dolls and matched stacking sets to display in Charlies secret hideout, where you chronicle your adventures.